Liberty Boom Review

The
Good

Addictive gameplay good for short bursts.

The
Bad

Severe difficulty spikes.

Patriotism and blowing stuff up seem to go hand-in-hand a little too naturally. While the real deal can be terrifying and destructive, colorful man-made explosions designed to dazzle in the night skies are an alluring annual treat for those seeking celebration and merriment. These crowd-pleasing displays bring smiles to the faces of young and old alike. However, in the wrong hands, even explosives designed to entertain can prove disastrous. Fireworks and air traffic do not mix. Your job in Liberty Boom is to see to it that they don’t.In celebration of freedom, independence, and the American way, you’ve set out to put on the best fireworks show of your life. You’ll travel around the world, hopping from one major city to the next, in hopes of blowing audiences away with an impressive pyrotechnic display. Unfortunately, someone at the local airport thought it would be clever to re-route all of the airborne traffic in the metropolitan area directly into the midst of your incendiary revelry.The challenge in Liberty Boom is twofold; make the crowd go wild and try not to blow up too many planes in the process. Nimble fingers, impeccable timing, and a little luck will go a long way to saving your career.There are a set number of fireworks to be detonated in each level. They’ll launch upwards at random speeds and in random locations that fall inside on of four vertical touch zones. Tapping the corresponding touch zone will ignite the device in a colorful explosion. You’ll get a bigger score for blowing them up higher in the air, which makes the crowds cheer louder. But if they explode too low or too high, the onlookers won’t be amused, and it will subtract from your score. Blowing up the planes and other flying machines that travel dangerously into the middle of your show has the same consequences.A strange parade of planes, helicopters, UFOs, and Zeppelins constantly crosses your path. Avoiding them is the toughest challenge in Liberty Boom, particularly in laterlevels when the screen is filled with them. These airborne obstacles enter from the left and right sides of the screen at different heights and traveling speeds. Tilting your iPhone to the left or right will speed up or slow down planes traveling in one direction, though this will have the opposite effect on any planes traveling in the other direction.A meter tracks how much the crowd is enjoying your show, and keeping the indicator out of the red zone lets you move on to the next level. As you progress, the scores for each explosion (and penalties for poorly detonated fireworks) increase substantially. Hitting multipliers that occasionally fly by amidst the plane traffic can also be a lifesaver.The difficulty ramps-up severely around the sixth or seventh level, though there are many city locations to visit. Most play sessions will only last a few minutes, and it can be easy to grow frustrated after tanking out on a great run when things get overwhelming.That said, Liberty Boom‘s intense gameplay quickly grows addictive. Returning to conquer levels you couldn’t previously beat feels very rewarding. The arcade-like feel of the gameplay isn’t incredibly deep, but it’s perfect for killing time in short bursts.